Legendary actor Hal Holbrook who’s been on American screens since the Ed Sullivan Show in 1956 died at the age of 95 on January 23, 2021 according to his personal assistant Joyce Cohen.
Holbrook was best known for his role as Mark Twain, whom he portrayed for decades in a one-man show he developed, Mark Twain Tonight! Between the 1950s and 2010, Holbrook performed the show over 2,000 times throughout multiple productions on Broadway and in other venues nationwide.
The man was a fighter being abandoned by his parents and raised by his grandfather to accomplish what he did, bravo.
Speaking to EW in 2008, Holbrook expressed some disappointment about his career: “There are roles I would have loved to have done. But now I’m too old. I missed my window.” But what ultimately mattered most to him, he said, was not money, fame, or awards but simply doing good work. He recalled his experience shooting a 2006 episode of The Sopranos: “I did this scene, and David Chase was at the monitors, watching. Apparently, someone said to him, ‘Boy, that was good, wasn’t it?’ And David Chase said, ‘When you want to get it right, hire a pro.’ I treasure that remark.”
Holbrook had memorable roles in many acclaimed films including Wall Street, Lincoln, The Firm, Men of Honor, All the President’s Men and Into the Wild, which snagged him an Oscar nomination and a Screen Actors Guild nomination for Best Supporting Actor.
He was nominated for a total of 12 Emmys, and won a total of five times including two Emmys in the same year, 1974, earning the awards for Best Lead Actor in a Drama and Actor of the Year for his performance in Pueblo.
His TV credits include Designing Women, North & South, Evening Shade, The West Wing, ER, The Event and Sons of Anarchy, among many others. He leaves behind his three children and two stepdaughters, as well as four grandchildren, Holbrook can now join his wife Dixie Carter who starred in Designing Women, she died in 2010.
There’s been a high number of celebrity deaths in 2021 and many surprising, and I guess you could say expected ones that just seems to be saturating the headlines as of late. The tone for celebrities isn’t that great as I’ve seen it’s either death or covid and neither one of them is good.